Suicide Rate in Leeds Prison one of Worst in Country
Suicides in prison are at a seven-year high, according to new figures released today by the Howard League for Penal Reform.
Leeds saw one of the highest suicide rates, with three people taking their own lives last year at HMP Leeds in Armley.
Nationally, 82 prisoners committed suicides, and 14 these were young adults aged between 18 and 24.
A further 24 deaths are yet to be classified.
“I wouldn’t necessarily draw the conclusion that it is the problem of the prison in particular,” says Andrew Neilson from the Howard League for Penal Reform.
“What we are seeing across England in Wales is a rising prison population, rising prison overcrowding and cuts to staff and resources.
“Leeds Is holding almost twice the number of prisoners that it is supposed to hold. The prisons aren’t in control of who is sent to them. You may sometimes see that in a year, a particular prison has more people with mental health issues and of course that might skew the figures.”
Chief Executive of the Howard League, Frances Cook, says the figures hide the true extent of misery inside prisons and for families.
“It is particularly tragic that teenagers and other young people have died by their own hand in our prisons and we should all be ashamed that this happened,” he said.
“No one should be so desperate whilst they are in the care of the state that they take their own life.
“It is evident that people are dying as a direct result of the cuts to the number of staff, particularly more experienced staff, in every prison."
The figures also show that prisoners on remand were disproportionately likely to take their own lives in custody.
One in three prisoners who took their own lives was on remand, although remand prisoners account for only one-seventh of the prison population at any one time. The Howard League and Centre for Mental Health are now set to embark on a joint programme of work on suicides in prison to find ways to end the death toll.